It seems like every day we see a new product falling victim to the crippling memory shortage that is currently ongoing. First, desktop RAM went extinct; then CPUs from both Intel and AMD went up in price. Graphics cards have long been difficult to hunt down, and even storage drives are slowly but surely going up in price. Sony has now announced that the global memory shortage has gotten to the point that it is no longer taking orders for its SD cards.

The move comes right off the back of Sony increasing the price of its PS5 consoles. The new direction means Sony will no longer accept orders for almost all SD card models, including CFExpress cards. There are some low-end cards still in production, but I wouldn't bet on finding a brand-new Sony SD card on market shelves any time soon.

Capcom apparently doesn't want fans waiting 9+ years in between big Mega Man game releases any more.

Before the Star Force Legacy Collection launched this month, it had been a while since Capcom released a new Mega Man game. The last title, Mega Man 11, was out in 2018. The next game in the series is Mega Man: Dual Override, a full-on mainline sequel, and that's due out in 2027.

This might be just the beginning of the Blue Bomber's resurgence in the public eye, especially with the franchise's 40th anniversary on the near horizon (the first game was released in 1987). In arecent interview with 80lv, Mega Man series lead producer Shingo Izumi says that Capcom hopes to alternate between new games and legacy collections on a more consistent basis.

Pirating games has been around for years, and protecting them has been just as persistent a challenge. A common name in the anti-piracy world is Denuvo, an Irdeto-owned protection software that managed to delay pirated releases long enough for companies to adopt it as their first line of defense. It protected games from being cracked during early release windows, when most sales are generated.

That changed recently when a pirated version of Resident Evil: Requiem, Capcom's latest entry in its zombie-slaying action adventure series, was uploaded just hours after its official release. Turns out, a wave of hypervisor-based (more on this later) Denuvo bypasses were enabling zero-day releases of major titles, including Crimson Desert.

In response, an Irdeto executive confirmed to TorrentFreak that Denuvo is already preparing enhanced security features to tackle these hypervisor exploits. In an interview, Irdeto's head of communications, Daniel Butschek, also assured gamers that the new security measures will not become a performance hazard for DRM-supported titles.

There has existed a clear divide between Android and Apple over the past decade or so. Green bubbles vs. Blue bubbles, Safari vs. Chrome, and so many more differences have kept the two platforms separate. One of the most crucial differences between the two was the coding language that was used to develop their apps. Apple's apps use the Swift language, while Android predominantly uses Kotlin and Java for its development.

That divide is about to come crashing down thanks to a new update to Apple's programming language, Swift. With the release of Swift 6.3, there is a dedicated Software Development Kit (SDK) for Android, enabling developers to use the language to build Android apps. This is a monumental milestone, marking a significant step toward blurring the lines between Apple and Android development.

The official Swift changelog states that the new SDK equips developers with the tools to integrate Swift code into existing Android app projects written in Kotlin/Java. Moreover, you can also create native Android apps from scratch using Swift if you want. The cross-platform integration will probably be the more important feature for developers who build versions of their apps for both platforms.

Halo Studios won't try to monetize the new Halo CE remake with an in-game cosmetic store.

Today, Microsoft announced a marketing promo straight out of the 2000s era: Gamers can score exclusive in-game Xbox goodies from specially-marked bottles of Fanta. One of them is an orange-yellow Fanta skin for Master Chief to be worn in the new Halo Campaign Evolved--that game isn't even out yet.

This led users to speculate that the remake would have some sort of store or in-game cosmetic shop similar to Halo Infinite. That way, Halo Studios could potentially make money on selling skins. This plan backfired in Infinite, eventually helping 343 Industries (the former name of Halo Studios) earn the ire of fans for selling overpriced skins, even going so far as to charge money for the color blue.

A new update from Geekbench sheds light on how Intel's new iBOT (Intel Binary Optimization Tool) works under the hood. The team conducted a series of tests on a Panther Lake-equipped laptop and found that it uses checksum-based matching to run verified apps. Most notably, the analysis suggests the tool goes beyond simple instruction reordering. Instead, it replaces unoptimized instruction sequences with optimized alternatives, for example, vectorized code.

iBOT was announced alongside Intel's debut of its Core Ultra 200 Plus processor lineup. Intel benchmarks or profiles select applications in its labs to identify unoptimized instruction sequences. If it finds instructions that can be optimized to better fit the architecture, it restructures and reorganizes them. Intel called this analogous to Tetris. The company explicitly stated that iBOT does not skip any instructions and that no reverse engineering is involved, as the optimization is performed post-link while the tool runs with user-mode privileges.

One of the supported applications for this utility was surprisingly Geekbench, which, on average, increased scores by 8%. Due to a lack of official technical details, Geekbench flagged all benchmarks conducted on CPUs that supported iBOT as potentially invalid. Following a week of rigorous internal testing, the developers have implemented a more precise detection method that isolates iBOT-optimized runs from standard ones.

SEGA's most recent earnings report gives a dour update on the company's performance, but the group hopes to turn things around with advanced new data-tracking capabilities.

Like most of the games market, SEGA isn't doing incredibly well right now. In its latest report, the company told investors that it would be recording a net loss for the FY26 period for the first time in 11 years. SEGA explains that underperforming content was a primary culprit for the loss, as well as delays in its pachislot/pachinko approvals process.

It seems SEGA needs more guidance, and plans to use data-driven analytics to help steer its course. In the Q3 presentation, the company tells investors that it is reviewing plans for a "structural transformation to a data-driven business." To make this happen, SEGA will establish a group to crunch numbers and examine KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, while also trying to align its studios and content along the way.

It looks like gears are finally turning at Microsoft, as they have confirmed that they have been working on major changes to Windows 11 over the past couple of weeks. First, Microsoft confirmed a major Windows 11 update with changes to Explorer and reduced Copilot integration. Then they discussed forming a new team to replace web apps with 100% native Windows 11 apps to streamline the user experience. Now, it looks like another big change is coming.

Microsoft's Windows Shell product head, Tali Roth, took to X (formerly Twitter) to respond to a tweet that raised concerns about Windows Search. Roth confirmed that "a lot of improvements" are coming to the Windows 11 Search experience, with the main focus on making it "simpler and less distracting."

If you have ever typed in the Windows Search bar to find something you're looking for, you know that there's a 99% chance that you won't find it. Instead, you are more likely to get irrelevant web search results and some random file buried deep in the catalogs that merely resembles the name that you are looking for. This concern was raised with Tali Roth in a separate tweet, to which she replied affirmatively.

Another analyst firm believes Nintendo will raise prices of the Switch 2, this time with TD Cowen analyst Doug Creutz outlining the firm's expectations.

Microsoft raised Xbox prices twice in 2025, and Sony just announced its PS5 price hike, leading to a sticker shock-inducing $900 MSRP for the PS5 Pro. Everyone is now wondering the same thing: When will Nintendo follow suit? Gamers are tentatively waiting for Nintendo to announce a Switch 2 cost increase, but the firm has only decided to price adjust its last-gen Switch 1 lineup. Nintendo even confirmed a cost hike for first-party Switch 2 cartridge games, confirming that digital games will now be cheaper by default.

Analysts expect Nintendo to follow PlayStation's and Xbox's lead with an official Switch 2 price hike. In January, Niko Partners predicted the Switch 2 would be hiked to $499, and sources told Bloomberg that corporate was also mulling over an increase to help offset rising production costs. Experts like Ampere Analysis' Piers Harding-Rolls and Kanto Games' Dr. Serkan Toto also believe Nintendo could raise prices throughout the year.

Meta has launched its newest smart glasses, developed in collaboration with Ray-Ban, aimed specifically at prescription wearers. Although people have already used Meta's current glasses with prescription lenses, the company has not actively targeted this market until now.

Meta claims its new glasses support nearly all prescriptions and are the most comfortable it has ever designed. CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlighted that billions of people wear glasses or contacts for vision correction, a market that Meta is now entering more deliberately.

The new glasses start at $499 and come in two styles: the Blayzer and the Scriber. The Blayzer adopts a rectangular design similar to the existing Wayfarer frames, while the Scriber offers a more rounded approach, close to the Headliner style. Both are part of the Gen 2 Ray-Ban Meta glasses lineup, but are significantly more customizable.

Sony has filed a trademark for Mimic, an interesting new experimental gun controller that may or may not actually release.

A bit of trademark research on Japanese database Chizai Watch has yielded some interesting results. According to a quick search, Sony Interactive Entertainment has recently filed three trademarks: Flexstrike, Pulse Elevate, and the semi-mysterious Mimic.

Two of these trademarks have manifested into consumer-ready products; the Flexstrike is Sony's new PS5 fighting stick, and the Pulse Elevate are the wireless speakers with built-in mics.

NVIDIA's GeForce Now update, version 2.0.83, is here, and the two changes that stand out most in this release are for Apple Vision Pro users. First, ultimate members can now stream games at up to 4K and 90 FPS, delivering crisper visuals and smoother motion. This makes Vision Pro outperform Pico and Meta Quest devices, which currently max out at 1440p and 90 FPS.

The other addition is the rollout of H.265 video decoding to browser clients on select platforms. On most platforms, GeForce Now runs through NVIDIA's dedicated app, but on Apple's mobile platforms and the Vision Pro, everything is handled through Safari instead. It functions like streaming through a browser on a desktop, just with a headset strapped to your face.

H.265 support is especially important for Vision Pro users, since it still relies on GeForce Now in the browser instead of a native app, where image quality can be more limited. The H.265 codec improves on that with better image quality and a smoother experience. NVIDIA says the update will roll out in the coming weeks on supported systems.

If you've had second thoughts about your Google Account username - which is the first part of your Gmail address, of course - then it's now possible to change it in the US.

TechCrunch spotted the announcement to this effect from Google, which means you can switch that username without having to start a new account from scratch (and that's obviously a less than ideal solution).

This ability actually began to roll out last year in the US, but Google has officially announced that it's now available to everyone (with a Google Account, naturally).

NVIDIA's upcoming DLSS 4.5 update will introduce a new feature called Dynamic Multi-Frame Generation (DMFG), but what is interesting is that it's already available via over-the-air (OTA) updates in the NVIDIA App.

It appears that new DLSS files and components have already been delivered through updates, but aren't officially "turned on" by NVIDIA. However, users have found workarounds to enable the feature, such as turning on DLSS Overdrive or tweaking settings with tools like NVIDIA Profile Inspector.

For those who don't know, current DLSS Frame Generation inserts AI-generated "fake" frames between real rendered frames to boost FPS. Dynamic Multi-Frame Generation changes that approach, as it dynamically adjusts the number of frames generated in real time (4x, 6x, etc.). Dynamically adjusting the number of generated frames will, in theory, improve image quality as the number of lower-quality AI-generated frames on-screen is reduced, providing a more balanced mix of natively rendered and AI-generated frames.

In late 2025, Insider Gaming published a report claiming that a new Lord of the Rings game was in development for a $100 million budget. Now it seems that the studio behind Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Warhorse Studios, will be the one leading the charge.

The latest stokes the fires of rumor from late 2025, with hiberner toujours writing on ResetEra that Ryszard Chojnowski, a 27-year industry veteran who's been a project lead for The Witcher, said on the Tolkien Polska podcast that he has heard from credible sources that Warhorse Studios is the development team working on the new Lord of the Rings game. Notably, Embracer Group studios hold the rights to the Lord of the Rings games, and Warhorse Studios is owned by the Embracer Group.

As for funding, the $100 million will be provided by the Abu Dhabi Investment Office. So, what can fans expect? The new Lord of the Rings game is akin to Hogwarts Legacy in design, as it's a third-person action game. Given the success of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and the experience Warhorse Studios has in crafting immersive RPG experiences in open worlds, the new Lord of the Rings game seems to be in very good hands.

It has become somewhat of a challenge to run DOOM on the most obnoxious piece of hardware imaginable. We have seen the first-person shooter run on an Elgato Stream Deck+ XL, a pair of earbuds, and scientists have even taught 200,000 human neurons to play it. At this point, the original DOOM has become the face of "can this thing do something it was never designed to do?"

And these remarkable feats continue. This time, by cramming the game's code inside DNS text records. Meet DOOM Over DNS, a recently released port of Doom by Adam Rice that encodes the entire shareware version into 1,964 DNS text records. It can be stored within a single Cloudflare zone and then reassembled by a PowerShell script that boots the game.

To understand what's actually happening here, let's start with the Domain Name System, DNS. It is one of the oldest protocols on the internet, and it's a system that translates domain names into IP addresses. You type Facebook.com, and DNS tells your browser where to go. Simple enough.

In a new article from Bloomberg reporter and Apple insider Mark Gurman, Apple's upcoming iPhone Fold is set to be the biggest shift in iPhone design since the smartphone's inception, marking the "first actual form-factor change".

Gurman points out in the recent newsletter that Apple is known for making "big" changes to the iPhone design every few generations, citing the iPhone 4, iPhone 6, and iPhone X as examples of such overhauls.

However, when it comes to the long-rumored Fold, Apple will be doing the biggest overhaul yet to the iPhone design as it will be a completely new form factor. Apple's iPhone Fold has been rumored for quite some time, and as leaks continue to surface about its design, a fairly clear picture of its physical appearance is emerging.

It's not unusual for a social media platform to offer a paid subscription tier that provides additional features. Snapchat does this with Snapchat Plus, and Meta does it with Meta Verified. There is also X Premium. But what about Instagram?

It appears Meta is testing a new paid subscription tier for Instagram called "Instagram Plus," with social media consultant Matt Navarra showing off the subscription's offerings in a screenshot posted on Threads. The screenshot revealed that Instagram Plus will enable a buyer to create unlimited audience lists for Stories, beyond Close Friends, provide data showing how many people have rewatched your Story, a once-a-week spotlight story, animated Superlike on Stories, additional 24 hours on Stories, search within Story viewer list, and the ability to preview a story without it showing up as a view.

The new premium version of Instagram is currently being tested in select global markets, including the Philippines and Mexico. Judging from the screenshot, many of the premium features are aimed at creators, specifically the ability to keep Stories active for more than 24 hours. Depending on the price Meta lands on for Instagram Plus, I can see many creators and businesses opting in just for this feature, as it will mean more of their followers will be exposed to their content, leading to conversions, purchases, increased viewership, etc.

In a follow-up to our report from yesterday, where known insider and hardware leaker KeplerL2 took to the NeoGAF forums to confirm that the BOM (Bill of Materials) for the upcoming PlayStation 6 will cost Sony around $760 USD per console, we've got a few more notable PS6 details to share. This arrives via a few follow-up posts from KeplerL2, which claim that the $760 figure is based on the PS6 launching with 1TB of internal storage and no disc drive.

Per previous leaks, it was expected that Sony would upgrade the storage on the PlayStation 6 console to PCIe Gen5 SSD technology, with each console shipping with 2TB of internal storage. With current plans for the PS6 pointing to 1TB of internal storage, this represents an obvious cost-cutting measure alongside removing the disc drive as standard and releasing it as an optional add-on.

However, according to KeplerL2, Sony is reducing storage capacity from 2TB to 1TB because the PS6 will natively support neural texture compression, which should result in significantly smaller game sizes (in GBs) compared to the current PS5. According to early tests on PCs using similar technology, neural texture compression can also significantly reduce VRAM requirements, freeing up space for features like ray tracing and path tracing.

In a recent episode of The Town with Matt Belloni podcast, reporter Alex Heath from the Sources newsletter and access podcast discussed Disney's deal with OpenAI, and how Disney is looking to gain a foothold in the gaming space.

Disney is reportedly looking at Epic Games as its source for a substantial foothold in the gaming sector, with Heath explaining during the interview that he knows "for a fact" that some senior executives at Disney want to buy Epic Games, and how they are just waiting for the "moment". But, there is also "others who think it's a bad idea". Furthermore, Heath goes on to say that Epic Games and Disney would actually be a great fit for each other, and that if Epic Games ever sold that "Disney would be the most natural home for it."

"For a lot of reasons. For the park integration. Could you imagine a Fortnite park?," said Heath. The report goes on to say that Disney would integrate its IP into Epic Games' open-world games. Heath goes on to say that securing Epic Games would mean unfettered access to the Unreal Engine, which Disney could then use to further bolster its extensive media library. Furthermore, acquiring Epic Games is part of Disney's wider plan to turn Disney+ into a portal for consumers to access all Disney content, including games, films, TV shows, etc.